I had to take my cat Willis to the emergency clinic in Missoula last night to be euthanized. He had been wasting away for months, battling not just lymphoma but also high blood pressure, heart problems, and a thyroid issue. Here’s Willis in this photo I took a few weeks ago, when he was having his last check-up with our internist, Dr. Dave Bostwick. Despite being on blood pressure medication then, Willis maxed out the blood pressure test that day and sent the meter off the scale. (We doubled his dose of Norvasc!)
Every day we made up a drug "cocktail" for him with all his medications. Despite looking awful and weighing only 6 pounds (down from his once robust 15 pounds), he still eagerly greeted us at the door to the cat house, he loved to eat, and he enjoyed getting petted. He was a real purr machine, even when he didn’t look like he’d have the strength to purr.
But over the course of the past two days Willis had begun losing his appetite, and then last night he did not come out for dinner. He was holed up in a cat tree condo and didn’t want to venture out. We finally coaxed him out, and I could tell the end was near: His breathing sounded raspy and he stretched his neck out, the way animals do when they’re starting to have respiratory distress.
I realized his long battle with cancer and his other afflictions was finally over, and I didn’t want him to suffer. Alayne called the emergency clinic to say I was on the way, and I wrapped Willis in thick bedding and hopped in the truck for the hour-long trip to Missoula.
I’ve had Willis longer than any other animal now in our lives. In fact, I had Willis before I even met Alayne, so this sweet old gray cat and I go back a long, long way. It was a very sad night.
Rolling Dog Farm Blog 
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